Wednesday, November 23, 2011

A Visit from St. Nick and Noreen.

This past weekend, we were treated with a visit from my cousin Noreen and her husband Nick. We'll now refer to him as "Saint Nick" because he graciously tolerates our wacky family and our quasi liberal beliefs. ;)

I love when my family visits because I get to do stuff that I wouldn't normally get to do. Like spending a gorgeous sunny day in November walking around the city. Our first stop was Macy's, so Lauren could complete her annual visit with Santa.

My only disappointment was that they moved Santa from his own private village on the sixth floor to front and center on the first floor. No matter though, because Santa was awesome. He patiently and attentively listened to Lauren's requests and asked her specific questions about each item. They even had a little sidebar about cookies.

I'm sorry to say that at this time, I'm not going to share the photo of Lauren having her tête-à-tête with Santa, because I might be using it for our holiday card, and I want to keep up the suspense.

But I wouldn't be so cruel as to leave everyone completely hanging, and will instead share this group shot. I like to think that Santa is looking the other direction because he spotted Katie Holmes and Suri shopping in the shoe department.

After our visit with Santa, we headed to Market Square and the ice rink where every mascot in the city of Pittsburgh, including Steely McBeam, Iceburg, the Pirate Parrot, and Kenny Kangaroo were skating around the rink. We snagged Buddy the Elf for a quick photo. Check out Arby's curly fries in the background!

Then, we took a trip on the T over to Station Square so that we could do the ultimate Pittburgh touristy thing and ride the incline to the top of Mt. Washington.

Did I mention what a gorgeous day it was?

After all that adventuring, we were pretty darn hungry, so we enjoyed a taste of Germany at the Hofbrauhaus.

The restaurant brews its own beer in these giant vats.

Beer comes in two sizes - this is only the half size.

This is Steve. Steve has the best job in the world. Steve gets to drink beer while he works.

Lastly, we concluded the evening at our house, where all us Pranty girls posed in front of the fireplace. If only we could do this every holiday!